1 of 16 Weddings this Summer

That is right people...SIXTEEN freakin weddings!!!  Don't worry I am not actually going to attend all 16 due to compassion on Mr. Barnard, but I will be attending more than half of those which is still A LOT!  

So this wedding was my cousin John John's.  He got married in the LDS San Diego Temple, and had a reception in an outside courtyard in Orange County.  My family (minus Ryan and Jenny) came out to the wedding as well as some cousins, aunts and uncles so it was so much fun being reunited!

As much as Carly looks like she wasn't enjoying it and is asian, she is actually white and we had a lot of fun together

 And my parents :)  I love seeing "old" couples at young weddings, it gives me the warm fuzzies.  Like, "Oh, people do love each other forever, ahhhh :)"

And me with my love.  Not my favorite picture, but had no other choice but to add it.

I wish I took more pictures of her dress!  It was sooo beautiful.  I will try to find some from their facebook pages and steal them for your viewing pleasure :)

2 1/2 of my favorite people, Brooke, Mom and William

Don't let the pose confuse you, that is not my boyfriend that is my mom.  Although I love her very much I am not in love with her ;)

The cake.  I chose a red velvet piece.  Big mistake.

The flower girl and ring bearer <3  This little girl (my cousin Summer's daughter) looks EXACTLY like my sister Jenny at her age...it freaked me the freak out!

I told my mom I would post the picture below because I got some really REALLY bad pictures of her and was cracking up so she spent the whole night with my camera taking bad pictures of me.  This was the prettiest of them :)

I LOVE the sparklers, but it was extremely scary.  I thought I was either going to A) Catch on fire B) Catch someone else on fire which caused me to be paranoid the entire time.  So as much as I would like to give sparklers a 10/10 rating, I will have to make it a 7.5/10 rating.

Here is to 15 more!  

Mad Hatter Fiesta

So at my new church (ward) they threw a Mad Hatter Party to celebrate all the many hats we wear.  And I was sooo excited because you all know how much I LOVE themed parties!

And then when I found out Diana Dowden had inherited her mother-in-law's collection of hats I nearly pooped my pants with excitement!  Thank goodness they were cheetah print pants so any markings would be easily disguised as part of the design ;)

Andrea in her hat

Me in mine

     

And Diana in hers

I was confused when I walked in and it looked like a fiesta, so to stop any further confusion to you all, I will now refer to this evening as the !Mad Hatter Fiesta!  (Close your eyes and imagine the first exclamation point upside down and you will feel like you were there) 

 MMMmmm...homemade Cafe Rio.  Soooooo (as Joy calls it) yummy!

 Look at the high society ladies

 We entertained ourselves by dying our tongues with the frosting from the cupcakes.  For some reason it was hilarious to us at the time...

I have a secret desire to wear some of her hats in real life, not just when I am pretending to attend a British wedding in front of my mirror in my room.  I don't know if I am ready to go public yet, but that will be my next fashion venture...vintage high society hats.  Thank you Mad Hatter Fiesta for the inspiration :)

Best Date to Date

William and I decided we wanted to do more special dates with each other.  (Thanks to one of my top love languages) :) And we decided we would take turns in the asking, planning and executing of the process.  They can be simple or extravagant and we don't have a set date for them.  

I got an email at work earlier in the week from him saying that I couldn't make any plans on Saturday and to be ready by 10am and don't eat breakfast.  He even gave me what kind of clothes to pack and added a "do not be too excited disclaimer" lol.  

Saturday he arrives at my house with these:

Flowers and a picture frame.  Don't forget these items as they will come into play later in the date.

We go to Jamba Juice and get smoothies and breakfast twist thingys that are divine and head to the pool to work on the golden brown tan ;)

After we could noticeably see tan lines it was time for the next step where we changed into the "workout clothes" portion and headed for a picnic and hike!

He had made bomb sandwiches, pasta salad, grapes, and a ding dong (which he realizes were both just for him as those things are naaaassssty.)

This is just before our hike.

So on our way to the hike we went further than where we were going to stop on accident and by doing so, saw this white older van with this guy shaving outside of his car.  Kind of weird but we figured he was just some mountain man that liked a clean shave to not look suspicious and we ended up eventually turning around and going back to the original trail head never seeing him again.  

Keep in mind our picnic lasted about 45 minutes, so it was about an hour since we last saw him miles away on the side of the road.  But then just as we were about to leave on the hike he pulls into where we had parked and is just standing outside his van like a true killer.  

William was so excited to go on the hike and I was like there is NO WAY that guy is a killer and he is going to kill us and he was shaving to look like he wasn't a killer.  William said I was being paranoid and he was just a mountain man and he wasn't a killer because there was a dog in the van.  

I obviously didn't listen because I KNEW he was a killer, and even if William could protect me either 1. he would die protecting me and I wasn't happy about that or 2. he would wait until we went on our hike, syphon our gas so we had to walk back to to civilization and kill us on our way.  Needless to say we didn't go.  So if anyone went missing around Tenaja Falls I know who stole/murdered them.

Next on the list that he had planned was a delicioso dinner.

Right before dinner I found his secret notes of the date that he had been planning that whole week!  So cute!!!  He even had little lists of supplies he would need.  I think finding this note was my favorite part of the whole day :)

 After dinner we went to see the new Avengers movie that was stupid, yet entertaining.  I give it a 6.5/10.
 We got out of the movie around 1:30am and usually at that time at night its pretty standard that we say our goodbyes and go home.  But for some reason he kept telling me he wanted to come inside for a little bit, which I thought was kind of weird but was excited for the extra couple minutes to be with him so I agreed to the after hours visit.

Earlier that morning he gave me that picture remember?...well he told me he put multiple pictures of us in it and wanted me to see them.  So I open the back of the frame to find...

An envelope containing two tickets to see the musical WICKED!!!!   

I am so excited!  I have been wanting to see that FOREVER!

I had so much fun not worrying about any of the plans and just being able to enjoy the different activities with him and being surprised each time.  I feel so lucky to have such a great man.  I love him end of story.  

XOXO

Moving Again

The the theme of my life lately has been waiting until just before I get comfortable and settled, then I decide to move.  Well for those of you who don't know/read my blog (hi mom), here is the story of the recent moves:

I was living in Murrieta for about, roughly, more or less, approximately, MY WHOLE LIFE, give or take 24 years, and after a long chain of events and some heavy, public cries at Chik fil A with Stacy, I decided to move to Huntington Beach and take an awesome job there.  Three days before I am officially in my new house steps away from the beach I meet a man whom I now call William.  (By the way, what is the rule for 'whom'? Was that appropriate usage?)  Our actual story I will save for a later blog.  

       

He watches me pack up my room in Murrieta, and I leave.  You might think I am a young single girl and moving isn't that hard, but have you ever seen "Hoarders?"  That concept was made after me.  This is not 1/4 of the clothes/accessories that had to be moved.

So we keep doing the 1-2 hour commute thing, but when you want to see someone everyday and you make the choice NOT to move in together, that long of a commute as short as it may be, how should I put this?...SUCKS           !

(just to be clear I didn't move in with him, just down the street from him) :)

So after much thought, prayer and deliberation, I decided to pack my bags yet again and be closer to my man. 

So William came up and basically did all the packing and loading.  I was shocked how awesome he was, I mean I was pinteresting while he was doing everything AND with a smile!  How is that for customer satisfaction?!

But even though he was doing all the work, I still got bored.  So I did what any other young hood-rat girl that has 24 hours to pack up her life and move would do.  I had him take me to Target where I could purchase a set of 5 bandanas to wear while packing, and thus you see how exciting it got:

Check out my pants!  I don't think the people of Target were ready for them.  I could only imagine what would happen if I wore them to Wal Mart, but you know what?!  I WILL wear them again and YOU WILL LIKE IT!  

William was very excited about his blue bandana.  Although I feel he styled it more like a 50's housewife, I still think it matches his deodorant.  (I don't know what that means either)

So the point of my very uneventful story to you is, I traded this view 

for this view

and I am one happy girl with crazy pants and a collection of bandanas.